Ruins of a Tyrant
by Kishadow
Summary: "I stared at the massive bulk in the shadows. All I could think of were charred skeletons and gas chambers. Nazis." T for WWII references and descriptions. Request by Colonial Marine. Includes an OC.


**A/N:** This is a request by Colonial Marine about Kaitlyn finding an old Tiger Tank and telling the clones and Jedi about WWII.

Enjoy, and feel free to request a story from me.

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Anakin shoved through some brush, not watching his head. The branches rustled, and just as Obi-wan opened his mouth to tell him to watch out, Anakin smacked his head on a rusty metal tube. Rex, who was behind them with Cody and Kaitlyn, tilted his head slightly, and Anakin could sense he was amused.

_Very _amused. It wasn't everyday you saw a Jedi walk into something. Anakin started shoving the brush off, and a weird machine was revealed. He blew some dust off it and saw a design like a cross, with other lines coming off of the four segments. He traced it, confused. He'd never seen a symbol like that.

He turned to ask Obi-wan, "What is this?"

His mentor stroked his beard, contemplating it. Cody took off his helmet and leaned forward, "Sir, I've never seen anything like it." Frustration riddled the Commander's tone; he didn't like not knowing things.

Anakin leaned back and studied it a bit more. It seemed to run on two wide treads, and the top part seemed to be made to swivel, with a long cylinder protruding out the front. He saw a hatch, and opened it. He was about to hop in when he saw Kaitlyn's face. Her eyes flashed with shock, and as she stormed over to inspect the design, she let out a snarl.

"Tiger tank."

Anakin snorted, "That's a tank?"

Kaitlyn shook herself, "Used by Nazi's in World War II. You think our losses in this war are bad?"

Rex snorted, "Well, yeah. Over half a million of my brothers." He took off his helmet and raised an eyebrow, solemn, but solid in his belief that there wasn't much worse.

She hissed derisively, making all of them take an uneasy step back. This was out of character for her, by a long shot. Kaitlyn rarely got this upset. She hissed, "Try 50 to over 70 million. And 12 million of those were worked to death, or gassed because they were considered inferior by the same people who used these tanks."

Cody's eyes widened, and Rex whipped his head to stare at her from where he had been watching a snake. Obi-wan closed his eyes, and clenched his hand into a fist, and Anakin snarled, "Why? Why were they considered inferior? Why did that many people die?"

She let out a humorless laugh, "That isn't even the worst part. Some of them were children. I've heard stories, true stories of a kid asking his father when he was going to see him again as they were being sorted. The father replied he'd be right back, but he didn't know he was going to be killed. Who did? Not like the Nazi's told them, 'Oh, we're going to kill you all. Step this way please'. Patton, who was one of our strongest military generals couldn't even go through all of Ohrdruf because he would've gotten sick. And what people thought was propaganda, oh no! It was an understatement. They said words could not describe." She trailed off, watching things they couldn't see, and shook her head.

She whispered, "So many terrible things. And so long ago. Oh, 60, 70 years. We try to forget the things the Nazi's did. We _want _to forget. Who would _want _to remember the bodies, the people so starved they could barely move." She shook her head, and added, "War is awful. It should be prevented. It should be eradicated. It shouldn't be glorified or romanticized. No!"

The four men watched one of the toughest women they had ever met let out a keening cry, full of misery for something she couldn't change.

Rex was silent for a second, then said, "How did the war end?"

Kaitlyn blinked, "We won. We defeated the stinkin' bastards. But, oh, what a terrible way to end a war. Atom bombs. Hiroshima, Nagasaki. In Hiroshima, the immediate casualties were 70,000, with another 70,000 injured. Other died from cancer, and leukemia, caused by the radiation. In Nagasaki, immediate deaths were around 40,000 to 75,000. We did it, we ended the war, but we killed so many to do it. Although that was how we defeated Japan. Hitler, the big Nazi leader, well, he killed himself. Coward. He should have been made to answer for his crimes."

She bent her head and murmured, "Back to the atomic bomb. The person who is credited with its creation, Robert Oppenheimer was right when he quoted 'I become death, destroyer of worlds,' after its first test. Well, they missed, actually, when they hit Hiroshima. But it doesn't matter if you it your target with a nuke. You only have to get close."

She shook herself, and took a couple steps away. "We should get going. We have a patrol to finish, and I can't go back and change WWII."

The men nodded and passed, each silent and introspective. Kaitlyn hesitated, and then took a step back towards the tank.

She then sliced through it with her saber, causing it to fall apart. It let out a dying rumble, as it started to crumble in on itself, and then quieted.

And so the United States Marine left behind a dark clearing with the ruins of an old tank from a long gone era of tyrants.


End file.
